H1B Wage Levels Explained: Level 1 vs 2 vs 3 vs 4 (With 2026 Data)

Every H-1B job in America carries a number between 1 and 4, and since February 2026 that number partly decides your lottery odds. It is the OEWS wage level on the Labor Condition Application — DOL's way of saying where an offered salary sits relative to what U.S. workers in the same occupation and area actually earn.

This guide explains what the four levels mean, how the thresholds get set, where the level shows up in the H-1B process, and how to find yours. If you already have an offer in hand, skip ahead and check your wage level →.

The four levels, defined

DOL divides the wage distribution for each occupation and geographic area into four tiers. The tiers reflect increasing seniority and independence, per DOL's longstanding prevailing wage guidance:

Level	Label	Who it describes	Current OEWS percentile
Level I	Entry	Routine tasks, close supervision, basic qualifications	~17th
Level II	Qualified	Moderate complexity, limited independent judgment	~34th
Level III	Experienced	Exercises judgment, may coordinate or supervise	~50th (median)
Level IV	Fully competent	Broad discretion, sets practices, senior expertise	~67th

Two things are worth internalizing.

A level is a salary threshold, not a job grade. Level III is not "senior engineer" as a title; it is the salary at or above the local median for the occupation. Your employer compares the offered wage to four dollar thresholds, and your level is the highest threshold the wage clears.

Level III = the local median. Half of U.S. workers in that occupation and area earn less than the Level III line. That is the anchor DHS used when it argued the weighted lottery favors "higher-skilled and higher-paid" workers: anything at Level III+ pays above what the median American in the role makes.

Where the numbers come from: OEWS, SOC, and geography

The raw material is the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, run by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It samples employers nationwide and publishes wage distributions by occupation and area, updated annually (new data typically lands mid-year and feeds DOL's July prevailing wage cycle).

Three keys determine your four thresholds:

1. SOC code. The Standard Occupational Classification of the job — e.g., 15-1252 Software Developers, 15-2051 Data Scientists, 13-2011 Accountants. Two jobs with the same title can map to different SOC codes, and SOC choice alone can move a threshold by tens of thousands of dollars.
2. Work location. OEWS publishes wages by metropolitan area, with state and national figures as fallback. Software Developers in San Jose have far higher thresholds than the same SOC code in San Antonio.
3. OEWS vintage. Thresholds refresh every year. A salary that was Level II last July can drift to Level I this July without your offer changing at all. Checking your level once and assuming it holds is a common mistake — re-check every July when the new OEWS data lands, and again before any filing.

Because OEWS does not publish the exact 17th/34th/67th percentile wages, DOL derives the Level I, II, and IV values from the published distribution (Level III is the published median). The practical result: each (SOC, area) pair has four dollar thresholds, and your level is whichever threshold your salary meets or beats.

How the level appears on the LCA

Before filing an H-1B petition, the employer submits a Labor Condition Application (Form ETA-9035) to DOL. The LCA states the offered wage, the prevailing wage for the SOC code and worksite, and the wage level the employer assigned. DOL certifies the LCA — usually within about seven working days — and the certified LCA rides along with the USCIS petition.

Two rules constrain the number:

• The offered wage must be at least the higher of the actual wage (what the employer pays comparable workers) or the prevailing wage for the assigned level.
• The level must genuinely match the job's requirements. A Level I designation on a role demanding five years of experience is a red flag for DOL wage and hour investigators — and since 2026, for USCIS too.

Critically, certified LCAs are public data. DOL's OFLC publishes them quarterly, which is exactly the data behind the H1B Levels salary database. When you look up a company here, you are seeing certified LCAs filed — the real wages and levels employers attested to, not self-reported survey numbers.

Why your level now drives your lottery odds

Until February 2026, the wage level was mostly a compliance artifact: it mattered for prevailing wage enforcement, but the lottery did not care. The H1B weighted lottery rule changed that. USCIS now enters your registration into the selection pool once per level:

Wage level	Pool entries	DHS estimated odds (FY2027 analysis)
Level I	1	15.3%
Level II	2	30.6%
Level III	3	45.9%
Level IV	4	61.2%

Under the old random draw everyone sat at ~29.6%. Now the level is the single biggest controllable variable in your H-1B odds — bigger than which employer sponsors you, bigger than timing. The math behind those estimates, and how to layer in the master's cap, is in What Are My H1B Lottery Odds in 2026?.

There is a second-order effect worth knowing: DOL has proposed raising the percentile targets themselves (17th→34th for Level I, and so on), which would make every level harder to reach. That proposal is not final; we track it in DOL Proposed Rule: Wage Percentile Changes.

Level vs. seniority: the mismatch that trips people up

A common surprise: a "Senior Software Engineer" offer can still land at Level II, and a "Software Engineer I" offer at a top-paying company can clear Level III. The level follows the dollars relative to the local distribution, not the business card.

That cuts both ways:

• Title inflation does nothing for your odds. Only the offered wage against OEWS thresholds matters.
• Location arbitrage is real. The same salary maps to a higher level in a lower-cost metro. Employers with multi-city presence know this, and the rule's multiple-worksites provision (use the lowest applicable level) exists to stop abuse of it.
• The gap to the next level is often small. Because the distribution is dense in the middle, a few thousand dollars can move a salary from Level II to Level III in many metro areas — and with it, your estimated odds from ~30.6% to ~45.9%.

The level follows you beyond the lottery

The wage level is not a one-time registration artifact. It recurs through the life of an H-1B:

• Extensions, amendments, and transfers each need a new LCA — and the level is re-derived against the thresholds in force at that filing, not the ones from your original petition. Raises can move you up between filings; OEWS drift can move the thresholds underneath you.
• H-1B1 and E-3 LCAs use the same OEWS level structure.
• PERM — the first step of most employment-based green cards — runs on the same wage tables through a formal prevailing wage determination. The level an employer has been attesting to for years tends to echo into that process.

The level also frames salary negotiation from both sides. The prevailing wage is a floor, not a ceiling: the employer must pay the higher of the actual wage it pays comparable workers or the prevailing wage, and nothing stops an offer above Level IV. Knowing the thresholds tells you exactly where the legal minimum ends and the market conversation begins.

The actionable point: your level is re-decided at every filing. A raise negotiated this year shows up in your next extension's level — and, while the weighted lottery stands, in your odds for any future registration.

How to check your level in under a minute

1. Open the wage level calculator.
2. Type your job title — it maps to the right SOC code automatically.
3. Enter your work city (metro, with state and national fallback where OEWS has no metro data).
4. Enter your offered salary (hourly works too — it annualizes).

You get your level, all four thresholds for your SOC × area, and the exact dollar gap to the next level. That last number is your negotiating target: "my offer is $3,200 below the Level III line" is a sentence that changes compensation conversations. From the result you can jump straight into the lottery odds simulator with your level pre-filled.

The official source, for reference, is DOL's FLC Data Center Wage Search — the calculator runs on the same OEWS data with a faster interface and the lottery context layered in.

Frequently asked questions

What are the four H-1B wage levels? DOL prevailing wage tiers from the OEWS survey: Level I (entry, ~17th percentile), Level II (qualified, ~34th), Level III (experienced, 50th median), Level IV (fully competent, ~67th). Each is a salary threshold for a specific occupation in a specific area.

Who decides my wage level? Your employer, when preparing the LCA, by comparing the offered wage to DOL thresholds for the SOC code and work location. It is a factual determination tied to the job requirements and wage — not a free choice.

Is a higher level always better for the lottery? For odds, yes: 1/2/3/4 entries and DHS-estimated odds of 15.3%/30.6%/45.9%/61.2%. But the level must accurately reflect the job. An inflated level is a compliance problem, not a strategy.

How do I find the level for my job and city? Use the free wage level calculator: job title, location, salary in — level and all four thresholds out. The underlying data is BLS OEWS, the same source as DOL's FLC Wage Search.

Sources

• BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS): https://www.bls.gov/oes/
• DOL Foreign Labor Certification Data Center (Wage Search): https://flag.dol.gov/wage-data/wage-search
• DHS final rule, weighted selection (wage level weighting and estimated odds), December 29, 2025: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-12-29/pdf/2025-23853.pdf
• Nixon Peabody: FY2027 weighted selection overview (level definitions): https://www.nixonpeabody.com/insights/articles/2025/12/30/h-1b-weighted-selection-process-announced-for-fiscal-year-2027-h-1b-registration-in-march-2026
• OEWS percentile derivation note (17/34/50/67 mapping and interpolation): https://www.salarytruth.org/prevailing-wage/mechanical-engineer/nashville

This site is an independent data tool and is not affiliated with any government agency. Nothing on this site constitutes legal advice or immigration advice. Lottery odds shown are statistical estimates based on DHS-published figures and assumptions; actual outcomes depend on the annual registration pool and USCIS processing. Consult a licensed immigration attorney for advice about your specific situation.

Data source: U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) disclosure files, updated quarterly. LCA filing data reflects applications certified by DOL; an LCA is a labor condition application and does not by itself constitute an approved H-1B petition or an employment offer. Wage level thresholds are derived from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS). Last data update: Q2 FY2026.